This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for originating voice calls, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for originating voice calls using a data terminal connected to a data service node.
Today, many businesses are aggressively participating in the information highway phenomenon by advertising their goods and services on World Wide web home pages that are accessible to the general public via the Internet data network. The number of businesses advertising on the World Wide Web is exploding.
However, as businesses gain experience with advertising on the World Wide Web, they recognize that their home pages may not efficiently provide the information required by each individual customer or effectively sell their product or service to each individual customer. Many customers may browse their home pages on the World Wide Web, but may not take the time to investigate further to answer any remaining questions they may have, and the advertisers may miss business opportunities as a result.
To encourage customers to investigate further, and to provide the opportunity to sell directly to the customer, many advertisers provide a 1-800 number on their home pages and suggest that potential customers call for further information.
However, in order to route customer calls made to the 1-800 number to a specialist who can answer the particular customer""s questions, the advertiser must use a human attendant or an interactive voice response system to route the calls based on the information desired by the customer. Customers who use the World Wide Web to find product and service information want to obtain that information quickly and with a minimum effort. Such customers consider the process of working through human attendants and interactive voice response systems to find the person who can answer their questions to be unacceptably time-consuming and tedious, especially when they are put on hold waiting for that person to become available. Consequently, many such customers wills not call 1-800 numbers to obtain further information, and the advertiser misses an opportunity to sell directly to the individual customer.
World Wide Web advertisers could overcome this problem by providing several distinct 1-800 numbers on their information pages and indicating clearly that. each 1-800 number will connect callers directly to someone who can deal with their specific questions. However, the requirement for several distinct 1-800 numbers would increase the advertiser""s telecommunications costs considerably and would not assure the caller that someone will be available to answer their questions immediately when they call.
Today, telephone operating companies provide printed telephone directories including xe2x80x9cyellow pagesxe2x80x9d which provide entries for businesses grouped according to the products or services provided by the businesses. Users of the xe2x80x9cyellow pagesxe2x80x9d locate the product or service category of interest in the xe2x80x9cyellow pagesxe2x80x9d, select a business based on its entry in the xe2x80x9cyellow pagesxe2x80x9d, and dial the telephone number listed in the entry for that business. The user may make errors dialing the listed number. Moreover, even when the user dials correctly, the call may be unanswered, or may be connected to an interactive voice response system or a human attendant for further routing. As noted above, many users dislike working through interactive voice response systems and human attendants.
Today, the tariffs charged by a telephone operating company in a first country for placing a voice call to a second country may be significantly greater than the tariffs charged by a telephone operating company in the second country for placing a voice call from the second country to the first country. For example, the voice tariffs charged by a Japanese telephone operating company for placing a call from a first directory number in Japan to a second directory number in the US are considerably higher than the rates charged by a US telephone operating company for placing a call from the second directory number in the US to the first directory number in Japan. US service providers capitalize on this discrepancy by offering services by which a Japanese caller can call a US service provider and request a connection between the first directory number in Japan and the second directory number in the US. The US service provider then places a first call to the second directory number in the US, a second call to first directory number in Japan and connects the first and second calls to provide the desired connection. Because the connection is made from the US to Japan, the Japanese caller can be charged at a rate based on the lower tariffs charged by a US telephone operating company. However, the Japanese caller must also pay the cost of the short call from Japan to the US service provider required to set up the desired call.
An object of this invention is to provide methods and apparatus for originating voice calls between voice terminals using a data terminal and a data service node without requiring interaction with human attendants or interactive voice response systems to complete the call.
One aspect of the invention provides a method for originating a voice call between a first voice terminal and a second voice terminal. According to the method, a voice call request is sent from a data terminal to a data service node, the voice call request identifying the first voice terminal. A call origination request is transmitted from the data service node to a telecommunications switch, the call origination request identifying the first and second voice terminals. Two calls are originated at the telecommunications switch one call is from the telecommunications switch to the second voice terminal, and another call is from the telecommunications switch to the first voice terminal. The one call is connected to the other call at the telecommunications switch to connect the first voice terminal to the second voice terminal.
The data service node may display a command menu (for example a plurality of command icons) at the data terminal. In this case, the command menu comprises a voice call request command (for example a voice call request icon), and the data service node interprets selection of the voice call request command as a voice call request. The voice call request icon may comprise a data entry field and may indicate that the first voice terminal identifier is to be entered into the data entry field before selecting the voice call request icon. Alternatively, the data terminal may be operable in response to selection of the voice call request icon to read the first voice terminal identifier from a mail profile of the data terminal and to transmit the first voice terminal identifier to the data service node via the data network. The alternative approach requires additional software at the data terminal, but avoids the need for the operator of the data terminal to type the first voice terminal identifier each time a voice call is requested.
Advantageously, the command menu may comprise plural distinct voice call request commands, and the data service node may respond to distinct voice call request commands by transmitting to the telecommunications switch call origination requests comprising distinct respective second voice terminal identifiers. In this case, different voice call request commands may be executed to obtain different types of information and, in each case the request or of the voice call will be called by a particular agent who is familiar with the desired information. The voice call request commands displayed may explicitly state the type of information available if the voice call request commands are selected, or the type of information to be provided (and consequently the particular second voice terminal identifier to be included in the voice call origination request) may be inferred by the data service node from the context in which each distinct voice call command request appears in the data displayed at the data terminal.
The telecommunications switch may be programmed to originate the second call only when the first call has been accepted at the second voice terminal. In this case, the data service node may maintain a queue of call origination requests at the data service node when the second voice terminal is busy and may transmit from the data service node to the telecommunications switch the next call origination request in the queue each time the second voice terminal becomes idle.
In one application of the above method, the data service node may provide advertising services on the World Wide Web, and the data terminal may be operated by a potential customer accessing the advertising services via the Internet. The first voice terminal may be a telephone of the potential customer, and the second voice terminal may be a telephone of a business advertising by means of the advertising services. The potential customer may request a voice connection with the business by executing a command on the data terminal. The advertising services may be telephone directories or xe2x80x9cyellow pagesxe2x80x9d accessed by the potential customer on the World Wide Web.
The call origination method described above minimizes the potential customer""s inconvenience by automatically having an agent of the advertiser call the customer when that agent is available. Because the voice call is placed from the advertiser""s agent to the potential customer, the potential customer is assessed no telecommunications charges. Consequently, the advertiser does not need to buy 1-800 service to avoid telecommunications charges to its potential customers. Because the advertiser does not require 1-800 service, the advertiser may provide several distinct call request commands without incurring a telecommunications cost penalty. Each distinct call request command may be made specific to a particular product line or type of information, so that the potential customer is assured of being connected to an agent that can provide the information or service required. It is anticipated that the increased convenience to the potential customer provided by this call origination method will enable World Wide Web advertisers to sell directly to at least some of those potential customers who are unwilling to call the 1-800 number presently provided on World Wide Web advertising pages, enabling the advertisers to sell directly to more potential customers.
Some advertisers may operate multiple geographically spaced data service nodes to serve potential customers over a large geographic area. Such advertisers may want to refer call origination requests to the agents who are located closest to the potential customer. To meet this requirement, the method described above may be extended to accommodate multiple data service nodes such that each data service node can forward voice call requests to other data service nodes. The data service node which receives the voice call request may select another data service node to which the voice call request may be forwarded based on the first voice terminal identifier.
In another application of the method described above, the data service node may be operated by a business offering international calling services, and the data terminal may be operated by an international caller who wishes to avoid high tariffs for placing voice calls from his home country to a foreign country. The international caller may request origination of a call between his telephone and a telephone in a foreign country using his data terminal. The data service node may cause a telecommunications switch in the foreign country to place calls to the voice terminal of the called party in the foreign country and to the voice terminal of the international caller to complete a voice connection by making only calls originated in the foreign country. No call from the home country to the foreign country is needed to set up the call, and no interaction with interactive voice response or human attendants is needed to set up the call.
Another aspect of the invention provides a data service node for connection to a data network to provide a data service. The data service node comprises means for receiving a voice call request and a first voice terminal identifier from a data terminal connected to the data service node via the data network, the first voice terminal identifier identifying a first voice terminal associated with the data terminal. The data service node further comprises means for transmitting to a telecommunications switch a call origination request comprising the first voice terminal identifier and a second voice terminal identifier, the second voice terminal identifier identifying a second voice terminal associated with the data service node.
Another aspect of the invention provides a data service system, comprising a data service node for connection to a data network to provide a data service and a telecommunications switch connected to the data service node. The data service node comprises means for receiving a voice call request and a first voice terminal identifier from a data terminal connected to the data network, the first voice terminal identifier identifying a first voice terminal associated with the data terminal, and means for transmitting to the telecommunications switch a call origination request comprising the first voice terminal identifier and a second voice terminal identifier, the second voice terminal identifier identifying a second voice terminal associated with the data service node. The telecommunications switch comprises means responsive to the call origination request to originate one call from the telecommunications switch to the second voice terminal and another call from the telecommunications switch to the first voice terminal. The telecommunications switch further comprises means for connecting the one call to the other call to connect the first voice terminal to the second voice terminal.
The data service system may comprise a plurality of data service nodes and a plurality of telecommunications switches, each data service node being connected to a respective telecommunications switch and being operable to forward voice call requests to others of the data service nodes. The data service nodes may select other data service nodes for the forwarding of voice call requests based on the first voice terminal identifiers.